Cooper (The Family Simon #6) - Juliana Stone Page 0,13

Charlie is a little stressed heading into these next few weeks, but the doctor says everything looks good, and there’s no reason to think she won’t carry this child to term.”

Cooper was going to be an uncle. Pretty damn sweet. “Have you told Mom yet?”

Rick shook his head. “Nope. Gonna wait until next week.”

Cooper frowned. “Why next week?” The smile on his brother’s face put Cooper on alert.

“Because she’s coming out here for Easter.”

“Easter?” Cooper jumped down the steps and retrieved his coffee mug. “It’s only March. Hell, St. Patrick’s day is this weekend.”

“Easter’s early this year.”

“Huh.” Son of a bitch. Cooper glanced up at his brother. “She’s not staying with me.” He loved his mother. He really did. But the woman was high-strung, overly dramatic, and a general pain in the ass. She liked to ride him for a lot of the choices he made, which he found ironic considering pretty much every choice she’d made since the day their father had passed was a bad one. Still, she liked to poke in his business. Mostly because she had no idea what his business was, and he was okay with that. The general public thought of him as a wealthy playboy, and he didn’t give a shit.

But he didn’t need to hear it from his mother. He got along better with her when they had space between them.

“I figured you’d say that.” Maverick looked pained. “Don’t worry about it. Charlie’s already insisted she stay with us.”

“Is she bringing Teddy?” Ever since their father died, their mother had become a career divorcée. She was currently involved with a much younger man.

Maverick shook his head. “Nah. She’s on her own. I talked to Calista yesterday, and I think there’s trouble in paradise.”

Cooper wasn’t surprised. “Again.”

“Again,” Maverick repeated.

Cooper frowned. “What’s going on with Calista these days? She called a few days ago, and I returned the message but haven’t heard back.”

Maverick handed Cooper his empty cup. “Seems our little sister has filed for divorce.”

What was there to say to that? Cooper had seen the writing on the wall since Calista’s wedding day when he’d spied her new husband, Zachary, getting a little too friendly with one of the…

“Apparently, hubby was spending a lot of time with one of her pals, Jessica.”

“The bridesmaid.”

“Yep.” Maverick snorted.

“Called it.”

Maverick whistled at his puppy. “Well, she doesn’t sound too torn up over the whole thing. Told me she was heading to Europe with a couple of girlfriends and didn’t know when she’d be back.”

Maverick whistled again, and this time, Stanley dropped his bone and lumbered over to the two men, tail wagging madly, nose rooting around Rick’s pockets for a treat. Once he found what he was looking for, the puppy ambled back to his bone and plopped down.

“Saturday night, we’re heading to the fire hall for St. Patty’s day. You should come. Charlie and I had a blast last year. It’s a big deal around these parts.”

“That’s because half the town is Irish.”

Maverick chuckled. “True. But it’s for a good cause. Fundraiser for the firemen’s association.”

“I’ll let you know. Depends on how much work I get done.”

“And how’s that going?”

“It’s going.” And it was. Slowly. Cooper rolled his shoulders and shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. “I’ve got Morgan Campbell coming out tomorrow to start work on the attic for me.”

Maverick looked surprised. “Thought you didn’t want anyone out here.”

“Changed my mind. The space up there is incredible, and I’d like to take advantage of it.” He eyed his brother. “I stopped by their place yesterday.”

“Whose place is that?”

“The Campbells’.”

“Ah.” Rick fingered his mug. “And?”

“There’s a lot of pain in that house.” He watched his brother closely. “You know anything about it?”

Maverick shrugged. “I’ve heard some things, but not real clear on the details. People around here are pretty closemouthed. They look out for their own and are selective when it comes to their flavour of gossip.” He chuckled. “Don’t get me wrong. It’s a small town. They like to talk. But there are some things that aren’t up for public consumption, at least to outsiders like us. The Campbell situation is one of them.”

Cooper wasn’t one to pry, and he sure as hell wasn’t one to gossip. But something about the look in Morgan’s eyes made him want to know more.

“What do you know exactly?”

“I know up until recently, Morgan was living in California. I know that her father drinks more than he should and that her sister is separated from